Woo, I leave this thread for a couple of hours and it goes crazy!
Just wanted to say that in the entertainment business, and that's what we're talking about here, 17 is an adult.
I work as a chaperone. Under the age of 16 you have to be chaperoned everywhere, even to the loo. Once you're 16, you can work as an adult. My girls (still under 16) have worked in professional panto and other stage work for years and the 16 and 17 year olds are employed, paid, and treated as adults. And I can tell you they have to take waaay more crap than anything dished out on this thread! It may or may not be right, but it's how it is. The entertainment industry is tough.
DD1 wants to go into the entertainment business or off to dance school in not much more than a year's time when she is 16. She will have to be really strong and level headed and have a hide like a rhino; she already knows that. You get crap thrown at you every single day, even if you aren't famous at all. You should hear the shit the directors give out. Already, at the age of 14 she has taken a good many rejections for the successes she's had. The trouble is, a lot of these young contestants go in from nothing. They've never done auditions and they've never worked in the business, so they've no idea what it can be like.
I think the main issue isn't Cher's age, but that they shouldn't have taken her on given how vulnerable she obviously is. I don't think she's yet made of the stuff you need to be made of to stay sane in such a crazy business. Maybe a couple of years down the line she will be. There should be much more support.
But I don't think the banter on this thread means anything - I've never thought it's anything more than a bit of light amusement, not to be taken too seriously. And if people spoke about my DD like that, I'd have to say, she's put herself in the public eye; she has to learn to let it wash over her. If she couldn't do that, I wouldn't be letting her do it at all.
Rant over. Look forward to next week!